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Hudson steps forward, sitting on the single stair to the platform. He’s so tall; his head is almost level with mine. Mason and Maverick both step into the room, too. “Summer, will you please—pretty please, with a cherry on top—do us the honor of moving in with us?” He bats his long lashes at me, making me laugh.
“That’s what you wanted to ask me? After you’ve already moved me in?” I giggle, unable to help it. This is so ironic.
“Well, we wanted to actually give you the option,” Brooklyn answers, throwing a nervous smile my way. “After the way I acted, I realized I took your choice from you. So I’m giving it back. If you truly don’t want to live here with us, we’ll take all your stuff back to your apartment, and I’ll find a way to make it safe for you there.” She looks like she’s just eaten a sour grape, but the look she gives me is open and genuine. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that they’d take me back tonight.
“So if I said I wanted to go home, you’d let me?” I test the waters.
She rubs a hand on the back of her neck. “I would. But I hope you’d be okay with at least one of us staying with you every night. To compromise.” The rest of that weight lifts off my chest, so I put them out of their misery.
“I don’t want to go back. I’d like to stay—” Just before I finish talking, Hudson throws himself at me.
I yelp, ready to take his weight, but it turns out, I don’t need to. As we’re falling back, he turns his body so I land on top of him. From this position, I’m straddling him, and I’m almost one hundred percent certain the bulge I feel pressing against me isn’t his phone.
There is a half-annoyed, half-exasperated laugh from behind us, but I can’t take my eyes away from Hudson. His eyes. Or his lips. I lean down to kiss him when a loud, shrill sound comes from down the hall. It sounds like an alarm.
I jolt, scared at the sudden screeching noise. My heart takes off, and in my mind, I’m going to the worst-case scenario.Someone broke into the house. It’s Jade, Connor, and Brody. They followed us from my apartment. Or it's a home invasion. Someone with a gun trying to rob them—us.
Mason and Maverick don’t hesitate, taking off down the hall andtowardthe noise—Brooklyn hot on their heels. Hudson sits us up, and we stand, following them at a much slower pace. The minute we leave the nest, he stays in front of me, covering my body from any danger we may be walking into. Since he’s in front of me, Hudson sees what the commotion is before I do. His shoulders relax when we hit the living room, and the tight hold fear had on my heart lessens.
When I walk to stand beside him, he lets me, so I know whatever it is isn’t a threat. No, definitely no threat. The scene in front of me is almost comical in a scary way. Scary because the men who are supposed to be protecting me are in the corner of the living room. Wells has the smallest member of their trio—Houston—standing on his shoulders, tinkering with the wires of a camera. The noise dies, and I see Damien, their suited-up leader type, stand with the plug in his hand.
“Fucking dumb-dicks,” he mutters. “Try getting it hooked up,thenplugging it in, assholes!” Damien yells at them. Then turns to Brooklyn, who is glaring at them, looking positively murderous. It would scare me if Maverick and Mason weren’t two feet behind her smacking each other in the arm when the other cracks a smile, trying not to laugh.
Damien, completely unperturbed by Brooklyn’s angry face, turns to us. “I’m sorry for them. They really aren’t stupid; they just seem it all the time.”
A surprised laugh rips from me at his words. This coming from the man who stood like a statue, just staring, unspeaking during introductions earlier. From the guy who looks like he sleeps, eats, and breathes his polished, buttoned-up suit look. Sitting here making jokes. Or maybe notjokesper se, but he’s definitely teasing his teammates.
Albeit in a rough, slightly offensive way.
It lends a whole new light to him.
“Wells is the one who plugged it in. I told him not to,” Houston grits out. It must be taking a lot of effort to keep his body tight enough not to fall from Wells’ shoulders while he works on the security system they seem to be installing.
Wells, for all the heat he’s taking, just stands there with his hands locked around Houston’s ankles and shrugs. But the shrug makes Houston go off balance. Luckily, he throws his hands out and braces against the wall. “Stand still, you big bastard. Man hard at work up here.”
At that, Maverick snorts, but Wells just laughs along with him. Between the three of them, it’s immediately clear that Wells is the more outgoing, goofy one. Doesn’t seem to take himself or the situation too seriously. I like him right away.
As I’m looking at the duo, the living room seems really bright all of a sudden. Every light and lamp is on, and I realize it’s pitch black outside. That would be why it’s lit up like a Christmas tree in here. The drive back from my apartment was dark, but the sun had only recently set, so the sky was a dark purple, heading toward a night black.Wasn’t that only a little bit ago?
The kitchen appliances are too far away for me to make out the time, so I look around the living room and spot my phone. With a tap of the screen, it lights up, and my eyes bug out of my head.
“How in the world is it two in the morning already?” I ask incredulously. “I have to be up for work in a few hours.”
“Maybe you should call in,” Hudson says, earning a scowl from me that has him holding his hands up. “Or not. Sorry.”
“I’m going to bed,” I grumble, standing on my tiptoes to give him a kiss so he knows I’m not mad at him.
“What time do you want to leave for work in the morning, ma’am? I’m on first shift,” Houston calls from on top of Wells’ shoulders.
“Umm… seven-thirty? And it’s just Summer.” He nods respectfully. But the look on his face tells me he’s sticking with ma’am. Okay then.
When I turn to walk toward my nest, Hudson grabs my hand. “Sleep with me tonight?” He looks so eager that I melt, nodding.
“Goodnight,” I call back to everyone when Hudson starts pulling me back toward the stairs. A chorus ofnightsare shot back, and we’re out of sight a second later.
Hudson’s room is the one right next to my nest. Brooklyn’s is the master on the left side of the hall, and Maverick and Mason have rooms on the main level. The door snicks shut behind us as I take in his space. The king bed is in the middle of the room, sitting on a large, beautiful wooden frame. The nightstands are the same color of wood, and the wall behind them is brick. Maybe a faux brick backsplash.
The rest of the room is minimalistic and neat. A desk sits in the corner of the room with some papers strewn on it a little haphazardly. But besides that, there’s no mess in sight.
